Panel Adds $350 Million To Transformational Satellite, $100 Million To Aegis, $115 Million To THAAD, And An Extra $28 Million To Short-Range BMD
Bill Adds $30 Million For Follow-On To Israeli Arrow Missile
Older, established missile defense programs would gain added funding, while newer programs in development such as the Airborne Laser and Kinetic Energy Interceptor would suffer authorization cuts, as the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) unveiled a $542.5 billion defense authorization bill for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2009.
Senators also provided the $712 million that President Bush requested to establish a European Missile Defense (EMD) system in the Czech Republic (radar) and Poland (interceptors in silos) to protect Europe and the United States against enemy missiles from nations such as Iran, double the current $320 million allotment.
However, as it did last year, the SASC required that the Czechs and Poles first give legislative approval of the EMD before the missile defense system can be built or deployed, an approval which those nations are slowly moving to provide, and after the secretary of defense certifies there is a high probability that EMD will work successfully, “in an operationally effective manner.”
The Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance praised this EMD move, saying it shows that the SASC has endorsed the European defense system, after NATO endorsed it.
As well, the funding measure requires the next president’s administration to “conduct a full review of U.S. ballistic missile defense policy, strategy and related issues.”
That “markup” authorization bill, unanimously backed by SASC senators, was announced by Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the SASC chairman, and Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the ranking Republican on the panel who also is the presumptive Republican nominee seeking election as president in November, hoping to succeed Bush in the White House.
Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, another SASC member, is one of two remaining major candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination, hoping to oppose McCain in the November elections.
Several provisions in the bill leave important decisions to the next administration, or request the next administration to perform studies of various programs.
The SASC authorization bill would add $100 million extra to the Aegis sea-based ballistic missile defense (BMD) system, and $115 million more to the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) BMD system. And the joint U.S.-Israeli Arrow program would gain $30 million extra authorized for an upper-tier follow-on, in addition to the regular $66.3 million funding that Bush sought for the Arrow program in fiscal 2009, not counting $8 million for Arrow program element targets. The Arrow missile defense program involves Israel Aerospace Industries and The Boeing Co. [BA].
He also seeks $44.9 million for David’s Sling, another Israeli missile defense initiative.
ABL, KEI Cut
The SASC measure would whack $45 million apiece from the Airborne Laser (ABL) and the Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) programs, and also would require an independent assessment of ABL and KEI.
Further, the bill would require the Pentagon director of operational testing and evaluation (OT&E) to evaluate tests thus far of ABL, and prohibits any acquisition of a second ABL aircraft until the secretary of defense reviews the OT&E assessment, and the secretary certifies “that the ABL has demonstrated a high probability of being operationally effective, suitable, survivable and effective.”
ABL and KEI are the two competing missile defense programs that would kill enemy missiles in their “boost” phase, shortly after liftoff from a pad or silo, before the enemy weapon can spew forth confusing decoys or chaff, or emit multiple warheads. After tests where each system would have to shoot down a target missile, either ABL or KEI would be chosen as the single boost-phase BMD program. Assuming that ABL performs well, KEI then would likely be given some other role, such as killing enemy missiles in their midcourse trajectory.
This ABL cut is far less than one a House authorization subcommittee last year would have imposed. Then, the House Armed Services Committee strategic forces subcommittee whacked a $549 million Bush request for ABL down to $149 million for fiscal 2008. Ultimately, the program got $510 million.
For fiscal 2009, Bush requested $405.8 million for ABL, which would correspond to a different number, $474.8 million, in the current fiscal 2008.
Thus a $45 million cut in the authorization would amount to more than a 10 percent reduction. Boeing leads the ABL program and contributes a highly modified 747-400 jumbo jet, onto which is loaded a high-powered laser by Northrop Grumman Corp. [NOC] and a beam control/fire control system by Lockheed Martin Corp. [LMT].
For KEI, he requested $375.7 million in fiscal 2009, so a $45 million cut would be even more significant here. Northrop is the prime contractor.
There also would be $50 million each cut from the Space Tracking and Surveillance System program (Northrop is involved here), and from the Multiple Kill Vehicles program (Lockheed is a player here).
As well, SASC senators cut $100 million from Missile Defense Agency special programs, $30 million from the BMD system core, and all $10 million that Bush requested for the Space Test-bed program.
And $80 million was cut from the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) program by Lockheed.
More Funding: Aegis, THAAD, TSAT
But the SASC bill also contained gains for some programs.
Senators would add a total $270 million in fiscal 2009 for BMD programs deemed more advanced. For example, there would be $100 million more for the Aegis sea-based BMD program that involves the Aegis weapons control and radar by Lockheed and the Standard Missile-3 by Raytheon Co. [RTN].
There would be $115 million more for THAAD, a Lockheed program.
And there would be a hefty $350 million addition for the Transformational Communications Satellite (TSAT) program, which is to be a $12 billion to $18 billion global five-satellite system eventually providing advanced communications to the military.
That offsets delays in TSAT caused by cuts in the program budget request.
There also is $10 million added to the Operationally Responsive Space program.
For the Prompt Global Strike program, there is $30 million to $45 million added for an advanced hypersonic boost glide vehicle, and there is realigned funding.
Language in the defense authorization bill also requires the Department of Defense (DOD) to establish ethics standards to prevent conflicts of interest by defense contractor employees who perform acquisition functions on behalf of DOD.
In recent years, on very large and complex procurement programs, DOD has hired defense contractors to manage those programs, which can influence which companies are chosen to sell military hardware to the Pentagon.
The bill also provides a needed legal exemption for the Department of Energy and DOD to continue working to rid North Korea of nuclear arms capabilities, and authorizes $50 million for such work.
And the measure authorizes a few million for securing nuclear weapons in Russia and aiding chemical weapons demilitarization there, and aids other threat reduction programs.
And there is $1.6 billion for chemical agents and munitions destruction in the United States, along with $50 million in funding for chemical and biological defense procurement programs and research and development projects.
The authorization bill also moves some elements of the ballistic missile shield for the United States from a special, flexible research and development funding status, into a more normal budgetary category that contains more regulations.
The measure also orders a $5 million independent assessment of the feasibility and advisability of developing a space-based interceptor system for missile defense, and requires a report to be provided on the Prompt Global Strike concepts as part of the fiscal 2010 budget request. The Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance hailed the space-based interceptors study as a “significant breakthrough” toward possibly establishing such a system.
Finally, the bill requires the next administration to conduct a national security space posture review.